


Der Preis der Freiheit

by QwibInTheWibs



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, M/M, Manga Spoilers, Role Reversal, Spoilers, Titan Shifter Eren Yeager, Titan Shifters, Warrior Eren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 12:14:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22849984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QwibInTheWibs/pseuds/QwibInTheWibs
Summary: Following an act of terrorism by the former Attack Titan, Grisha Yeager, and the doctor's subsequent capture, his power is left to be taken by the younger of his two sons.Eren Yeager, once a warrior candidate, now stands as the first vessel for the Attack Titan truly aligned with Marley.
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Eren Yeager
Comments: 20
Kudos: 67





	1. The Inheritance - Year 844

* * *

"Are you going to say anything?"

* * *

The words were Eren's, and they startled him. He hadn't expected to speak- in fact, he hadn't since he'd entered the chamber. Even after the soldiers had left, eager to be nowhere close to the ritual, he hadn't spoken. He'd let his silence go on for what had felt like hours, simply waiting for the man to speak instead. But Grisha was silent, Eren's father remained just as he had been since Eren's arrival, arms lifted, held up by cables connected to the walls. Restrained like an animal... A devil.  
"Please say something."

Pleading? Far more than just speaking, this was something Eren had not expected to do. This was his last chance, however. With the Titan serum in his right hand, he knew, right then was his last chance to hear his dad's voice. Just moments before he would have to go through with his duty, to erase this... traitor from the world. It astonished Eren how relieved he was, to finally watch Grisha lift his head, It was enough to bring a smile onto the boy's face, even as his father was expressionless. "What do you want me to say?" the man asked, nigh oblivious.

That relief was demolished. With a hard bite of his own lower lip, Eren struggled to keep his composure steady. There had been one question, a single one since he had heard the news, ever since he had been briefed of what his father was, what his father had done.  
"Why?"  
Why did he do it? What could have possibly justified Grisha's crime? All the corpses littering Liberio's central square, several dozens of innocent people dead, only a few military casualties. All by a man only recently discovered to be some sort of... restorationist.

And not only that, one of the few people holding the power of the titans, one that had evaded Marley's grasp for so long.  
This man was his father, a man who Eren would have never thought capable of such a thing, until now.

Grisha's answer was short, curt and the very bullshit Eren had expected: "For Eldia's freedom."

Following that, Eren lost it. He screamed, cursed, raved- absolutely made it known that Grisha was the worst father to have ever lived. He would have doomed them. If Zeke himself had not been a warrior, Eren, Carla... their grandparents, all of them would have been shipped to paradise. And only so Grisha could satisfy his ideals, his bloodlust, on a few civilians who had nothing to do with any of this. At that moment, Eren was convinced Grisha was nothing more than a murderer, a monster.

But this monster never spoke... He had said his piece and was now silent. Silent all the way to the moment Eren subjected himself to the injection. Silent to that very last moment, the moment in which Eren tore the man to shreds. Passing on the Attack Titan from father to son.

It was only after this, as he arose from the nape of that once mindless Titan that Eren allowed himself to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An absolute mess of a random idea I had. Eventual Eremin! After... whichever point Armin is added to this fic.
> 
> I don't know, don't have much to say here. Totally didn't forget to add the tags and notes before posting or anything...


	2. Departure - Year 845

Today was the day. The operation to retrieve the Founder. It hung over Eren's head, forcing sleeplessness onto him, hours upon hours spent awake, staring up towards his ceiling. The boy had dug out something ancient for this- a doll, one of Zeke's oldest toys. Ironically enough, it almost resembled his half-brother's Beast Titan. It was something Eren had long thought he'd outgrown. But here he was, clutching the toy to his chest, as the only thing staving off a rearing meltdown. ... God, if any of the top brass could see him now, he was sure that would get him out of the mission. And probably grant him a one-way ticket to losing his Titan. What sort of example was he meant to be, acting like this? Only ten years old, sure, but he was a Warrior, the highest honor to the Eldian people, and here he was, clutching a doll and whimpering. Actually, honest to god, whimpering.

Eren didn't want to go.

This was not a realization he had easily come to, A week ago he had likely been the most enthusiastic of the group. But it dawned on him now just how alone he would be out there. Even with his comrades at his side, loneliness would prick into every day, every hour. He did not know Reiner, was not fond of Annie, found Bertolt overly meek, dull, and Marcel... He couldn't quite pin Marcel down, but there was some discontent there.  
If Zeke had been going, perhaps this would be so much easier, but, as it was, both Eren's brother and the Cart Titan's inheritor were to be left behind to protect the Mainland. Did he only fear the loneliness? Perhaps not. The island itself was a terror, filled to the brim with Titans and populated by countless devils. So much evil... and he would only have his comrades to protect him, would they even truly have his back? Looming over all of them was the fact that they may not return at all...

No, that wasn't the only thing. This invasion had disquieted him from the very start, it was only masked by his earlier fervor, but no matter how he focused on it, Eren could not find the source of this discomfort, he could not fight against it. Laying there wasn't helping. It provided no distraction, and so he left his bed. Within a few steps, he was out of his room. And out into the quiet, dark hallway beyond. Long nightly shadows crept into each inch of the hall... all aside from the end of it, where there was a sole light. Dim, flickering, almost unnoticeable, coming from his Mother's room. The same room that she had once shared with Grisha.  
That she was awake was almost enough to frighten Eren back into his own room.

Not for any fear of backlash, or punishment for being up so late but... ever since the death of her husband, Carla had been hollow. Her expressions blank, empty, she did nothing but lay around, wasting away. It was often difficult to even get her to eat. This hollowness only faded when she looked at Eren, the boy always noticed a shift at those moments, she still saw Grisha. Every time, it made her condition worse. And every time, it excited a knot of hate within Eren. He was the cause of this. Perhaps Grisha's death was caused by the man's own actions, but Eren had been the one to kill him. How could he force Carla to face her husband's murderer, time after time again?  
Very easily, it seemed. Almost automatically, he gravitated towards that light. Tears already beginning to fall. _I need my mother back.  
_ That's all he wanted, as he stood at the door. Pushing the thing open, with a low creak.

And there she was... clutching something in her hands. Her hair long and unkempt, body thin and malnourished. A woman who had resigned herself to death long ago, wanted it more than anything, even with her son still in the world.  
This woman was smiling, her thumb running through that... picture, over and over again.  
And she spoke, her voice scratchy with misuse; "Eren.. Come here."

At the beckoning Eren froze, his hand clutched to the door, ready to bolt. "What are you holding?" he asked.  
Carla didn't answer, she only scooted over, patting the spot on the bed next to her. Eren obeyed her call, with halting steps, cautious and slow, watching Carla throughout. Step after step, until finally, he climbed onto the mattress. Her arm looped gently around him, pulling him close to her form. Eren was finally allowed to gaze at the picture, and all he saw was himself. Not Grisha, as he'd expected, but just... him. A smaller him, a sole photograph of Eren in his toddler years. Carla's thumb ran through this picture once more, before she spoke again; "Do you think you'll come home?"

It was the very same fear he'd mused over previously, he didn't really know. But, looking at his mother's form, Eren had a question of his own. "Will you be here when I do?"

...

Similarly, Carla had no answer for this. And so, without words, the both of them just held each other. Their eyes glued to that long-lost memory in her hand.

* * *

Eren had snuck the doll into his pack. It was only hours after the warriors had departed from Marley that he realized the shame of this. Well into the night, deep in the bowels of the warship they were being transported in, Eren sat on his cot, staring right down at the doll. The stupid little thing clutched into his hands when he should have left it behind. His face was absolutely baked in crimson, a blush that left no spot unconquered, his teeth grit with the embarrassment. He couldn't let anybody know that he had it. It was this that had Eren storming from his quarters, rushing through the hallways of the ship, dangling the doll by its arm. Emerging from the bottom deck, right out onto the top surface of the ship. He stormed up to the nearest railing, and without a single hesitation, chucked the doll overboard, as hard as he possibly could. It soared, flew through the air. And, now that it had left the boy's hand, his eyes widened, his mouth parted in a gasp, and his hand shot out, a screeched "NO!" broke from him... just before the doll hit the water, and the ship quickly overtook it.

It was gone.

"What a shame- That was a pretty neat toy."  
... That voice wasn't his. Eren's head jolted to the left, eyes widened further. And right there was Annie Leonhart, her chin tucked up into her palm, elbow against the railing. How had Eren not noticed her there?

"P-.. Please don't tell Magath," he pleaded, a tremble coursing through his body.

Annie, however, just raised a brow, "Huh?"

"... Huh?" Eren echoed.

"Why would Magath give a shit about your gorilla doll?"

A chill ran through Eren with those words, leaving him frozen right on the spot, realization slowly sunk into him. Soon enough, he found himself looking towards the ocean once more, staring into the dark water... It had all been for nothing.  
All of a sudden, Eren's face was in his hands, biting back the urge to sob, or even scream at his own stupidity. _It was all for nothing._ Annie, bless her, at least allowed Eren to grieve for a few moments. Before she stabbed through the silence that had settled between them, "What exactly was it?" That question, more than anything, nearly broke Eren's convictions... nearly caused the floodgates to break. But he wouldn't cry. He couldn't cry, not for that damned doll.  
Even as he began to explain.

"It was Zeke's, back when he was a kid... Our dad gave it to him."

"Then why did you throw it away? Wouldn't you have wanted to keep it?"

"Of course I wanted to keep it!" Eren shot back, his body turned to the girl next to him, right arm flying over the railing, to wave at the ocean, "Didn't you see how I reacted?! I wasn't thinking of it! I just.. I shouldn't have brought it. It was stupid. It-- It was just a doll. And a Warrior shouldn't be playing with dolls... so..." The more he spoke, the further his outrage died down, until his voice followed along with it. Soon enough, he was back to grasping at the rail, staring bewilderingly at Annie. She hadn't reacted, and her head only lifted to look at Eren once his speech had concluded. The boy was left frantic His right hand immediately went to work on wiping away all the tears that had built up, throughout his rant. Only when he was done did he let himself glare at Annie, brows furrowed and cheeks puffed out, "Why do you even care?" he asked, failing to lower the upset pitch of his voice.

Once more, Annie let a brow raise, before she looked away, "Because, I understand wanting to be at your father's side. Even when it's not possible. Especially, when it's not possible." That was all there was from the girl, as soon as she'd let those words out, she'd pushed herself off of the rail and walked past Eren. All while the boy was left stunned, only blinking himself out of it when he heard the hatch behind him close, Annie had returned below deck. Eren didn't know how long it was, before he eventually followed, to find himself right back at his quarters, and back in his bed. Even in that privacy, Eren didn't let himself cry. He had to dull himself, had to keep himself from thinking of the truth his fellow Warrior had uttered.

He couldn't stand it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be longer and actually include their arrival on Paradis but- ultimately decided this worked fine the way it was!  
> Hope whoever's reading this ends up enjoying it!


	3. Trouble in Paradise

Marcel Galliard.

That had been his name. The leader, the one meant to carry them through the mission... A hero. He was a hero, and they were cowards. That is why he died, for protecting Reiner, while none of them offered him the same. Reiner, Annie, Bertolt, Eren. How did Marcel feel watching those faces? Watching those people let him be eaten? Eren didn't know, he couldn't know. His mind was blank with this loss, inactive, in contrast to those around him. Those that moved- the rest of the Warriors ran, and he stayed, staring at Marcel's killer. Watching as the Titan that had eaten him collapsed, its body disappeared, leaving a Human in its wake. Curled against the ground was some freckled girl, unconscious and nonthreatening, in complete contrast to just moments ago. The inheritor to the Jaw Titan.

Eren's thoughts were a storm, What were they meant to do without Marcel? And what was he meant to do with this girl? She wasn't awake yet, perhaps he could regain the Jaw Titan- that should have been what he did. This person murdered Marcel... It was only right. His hand moved, his teeth bit down; and... there was nothing. No lightning, no Titan- he bled, but the transformation could not happen. The goal wasn't there. His arm dropped, blood running down and dripping off of his fingers even as the wound itself disappeared without a trace. The freedom this stranger had just regained- Eren couldn't take it back.

Reflexively his lips began to move, forming into a faint, reassuring smile as he offered a softly spoken “Good luck…” before his back turned on the stranger. He didn’t know where his newfound benevolence had come from but… for a moment, it left Eren hesitant to leave the stranger, he had no guarantee that she would even survive out here. But… what else was Eren meant to do? If he brought her along his comrades would be sure to do the thing he had not been able to.  
So, in spite of his fear for her the best he could do was leave.

And so began his movement, jogging off in the direction the other warriors had run towards, in the hope that they did not believe Eren to be dead. That they did not complete the mission without him.

* * *

That day had been peaceful.  
So it had started, a quiet day- spent on a full stomach, going by without anybody bothering him. The bullies Armin had gotten so used to were not there.  
Not the first time this had happened, but- all the same, it was still a rare treat. Today, he spent it sitting next to the canal, pushing through his grandfather’s… forbidden book.

He’d seen it all before but… each and every time, wonder of the unknown still filled him. The unknown world outside of the walls.  
The book spoke of flaming water, fields of sand, land made entirely of ice.  
And the sea… The ocean.  
Upon that passage, Armin could not help but look up from the book, staring at the canal in front of him. The water there was bland and tiny compared to the magnificence of the ocean, according to his book.

It was said to stretch out for miles— a gigantic body of water, filled to the brim with salt. So much salt that a person could dedicate their entire lives to collecting it and still not deplete the ocean of its surplus. Somewhere, far, far away from the walled world he lived in was this place, and further still, across that ocean were all those sights that Armin should have never let himself dream of. But he did… he did.  
Such thoughts were finite… this bliss was finite— as, suddenly, to the boy’s right there was a flash, thunder rocking his ears at the same time the shockwave hit him.

If he had been standing, the fall that ensued would have been far worse, but as it was, he was merely knocked onto his side. His eyes wide and alert- an explosion…? His book closed with a faint thud, and with the thing locked under his arm, Armin ran off in the direction it had come from… Somewhere near the wall’s gate.  
That alone should have made him realize the gravity of this… But it wasn’t until he stood in the marketplace that the situation truly hit him.

The book fell from his hands as— for perhaps the first time ever, Armin felt connected with the people around him. Every single one of them staring in terror at the face of a Titan, tall enough for its head to peek over the wall.  
It shouldn’t have been possible… the wall was fifty meters tall, but there it was… Body lacking any skin- showcasing only the red muscles beneath. There was silence — deafening, all-encompassing silence as the people of the wall stared at this gigantic Titan and it stared back at them.  
Armin was lucky. Lucky to still be alive, somewhere after the sighting of the Titan, everything had gone into autopilot. He knew that the wall had been broken, heard and felt the rubble falling around him, landing on people here and there. And he knew that the Titans had invaded, spilling into Shiganshina one after the other through the breach that had been created. But following that, he knew nothing.  
He was deaf to the screams, blind to the world around him. He must have run, or he must have been carried… One cognitive blink later and he was no longer in Shiganshina…

He was on a boat, his grandfather’s arms around him, and in his own arms was _the_ book. Of all the things, this was the most surprising to him… He had not abandoned it— even in the panic of the moment, even as he hadn’t consciously thought of it, Armin had been sure to protect this piece of the outside world.  
But now he heard the screams… the boat he stood on was full… Just the same as the rest of the evacuation vessels. Across from the canal people were still begging to be let in- to not be left to the Titans. He could have been down there.

Soldiers were down there assuring the people that the boats would be back, the evacuation would be complete… There was still a gate isolating Shiganshina from the rest of Wall Maria… Until there wasn’t.  
As, suddenly, with another deafening crash, that gate was left in pieces. Broken through by a Titan just as unique as the one that had kicked down the wall in the first place.  
… Blonde hair.  
Armor covering nearly every inch of its body. The thing’s posture was elegant, purposeful- and it made no moves towards the people on the boat, or even the folks on the other side of the canal. Those doomed people who have had their panic reignited.

No, even as those people screamed and many of them began to jump across the canal, in an attempt to reach the already moving boats— The mysterious Titan did not move from its spot… It had absolutely no interest in eating Humans.  
Like it had completed its mission.  
Armin would never forget those two.   
The Armored and Colossal Titans.

* * *

Eren had been spared from the need to transform… He wished he hadn’t… If, instead of Annie, he’d been the one to carry them towards the wall, he wouldn’t have seen any of it. He wouldn’t have heard the screams, wouldn’t have witnessed the carnage down below. From his vantage point above the wall, he witnessed the massacre. Person after person grabbed, eaten—  
… But no… these weren’t people.  
The inhabitants of this island were _devils._

This is what he kept telling himself, as he and the rest of the warriors slipped in with the refugees.  
As he overheard story after story, heard the accounts of those that had lost everything, those people who were lucky to even be alive now. Everytime an ounce of sympathy began to claw its way into him, he beat the feelings back.  
Devils… Devils… Devils.

And then… somewhere, sometime, in this haze, amidst those days of travel. They heard the story of the old man…  
His eyes were blank, staring at a place none present could see. A haunted look.  
“My village… was in the mountains to the south east of Wall Maria… Unlike the villages along the river, we didn’t get the news of the wall being destroyed. It was the Titans that got to us, far before the news did.”  
Eren’s ears were ringing already… the words brought him to that place he couldn’t see, immersed and frozen as the man’s words continued:  
“When the sun came up… The animals were restless, and the sound of the ground shaking got louder— like I’d never heard before. It wasn’t long before I realized it was the sound of footsteps, rushed to open the window and…”

For the first time since the man began to speak, there was a pause in his story, his breath caught off, eyes widened as if he’d seen a ghost.  
… No, as if oblivion were staring him in the face, ready to take him under. It must have been the same expression he’d made, when he’d opened the window, when he’d seen the source of those footsteps…  
“I… don’t remember much after that.” The man continued, face frozen in that expression. “We escaped on our horses, leaving three children about your age behind…” His face… didn’t soften, but numbed, growing still and devoid of emotion. “... We left them behind.”

He was done talking, after that.

Those… were the last words Eren would ever hear from the man. The next morning, he was at the end of a rope, hanging from a tree. Eren did not know why this hit him so hard, it was one man out of thousands… Several, several thousands. There it was, the awareness. He couldn’t ignore this. It wasn’t just that man, Eren had helped in the slaughter of far, far more and he was expected to continue.  
Eren fell, his hands and knees met with the ground, back hutched as he retched, the meager breakfast he’d had this morning spilled straight out of his mouth. To the spectacle of those around him… especially those who were meant to be his comrades. But they must have felt the same… They tried to console him. Eren was unconsolable though, under the weight of this awareness, the only devils here were them. They should not have been here, they should not have breached this peace.

But there was no end in sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god. This took forever.  
> I am so sorry about that! Don't even have much of an excuse aside from... well- all that's going on.
> 
> Still, hope you enjoy this chapter!


End file.
